This invention is directed to a drawing media which contains an organosilicon compound. The presence of the organosilicon compound in the drawing media as an ingredient, results in the smoother application of the medium, easier blending of colors on the substrate, and the elimination of the need for applying a fixative to the completed drawing.
The artists in the twentieth century have at their fingertips a wide variety and selection of drawing media from which to choose. Some representative types of drawing media which can be used by the modern artist are charcoal, conte' crayon, colored pencil, graphite pencil, color markers, pastel, pen and ink, acrylics, water colors, and gouache. Pastels themselves come in a wide variety of consistencies including soft pastel chalk, oil pastel, pastel pencil, and neopastel crayon.
Chalk pastels, which typically contain pigment, precipitated chalk and gum tragacanth, apply very smoothly to the drawing substrate. Once applied, individual colors are readily blended. The blending ability of chalk pastels is essentially unlimited. Soft pastels and other forms of drawing media containing a minimum amount of binder, such as charcoal and graphite pencil require the application of a fixative to the substrate during the painting process in order to fix the drawing media and the image to the substrate. Due to the nature of the drawing media, lack of a fixative would cause the drawing media to rub off easily. To prevent this from occurring, the artist using charcoal, graphite pencil, or pastel drawing media, sprays a fixative solution containing glue or resin lightly over the picture.
Works of art in pastel and other friable materials such as charcoal and graphite pencil, are known to be inherently unstable. The pastel medium consists of dry pigment particles held together with a binder. The sole function of the binder which is typically gum tragacanth, is to hold the pigment particles together in order to form a stick. The stick is used to apply the pastel pigments to the paper substrate. The pastel particles have a natural tendency to flake off from the paper substrate. Virtually any condition, such as vibration of the piece during travel or extensive handling, affects the weak forces holding the particles to the substrate, resulting in damage to the piece and loss of pigment.
The use of a fixative, however, has not been found to be advantageous for a number of reasons, including the fact that once the fixative is applied to the work, the fixative cannot be removed without total destruction of the work. Application of a fixative further causes undesirable changes in the overall color balance and color relationships of a finished work created in pastel media, or other friable media such as charcoal and graphite pencil.
Oil pastels, in contrast to chalk pastels, are essentially self-fixing because the pigment is entrapped in the wax binder. In soft pastels, the amount of binder is minimal and the pigment is delivered through the chalk particles which do not adhere to the drawing surface unless fixed.
Since oil pastels are wax based, they are soluble in common paint solvents such as turpentine and mineral spirits. Once the medium is applied to the drawing, the strokes can be blended and softened through the use of brushes and cloths dipped in the solvent. This technique results in more painterly effects than can be achieved with chalk pastels.
Oil pastels, however, do have some disadvantages when compared to chalk-based media. The smoothness of application using oil pastels is noticeably superior when using chalk pastels. Greater pressure must be exerted when applying oil pastels than when using soft pastels to maintain the same degree of evenness to the stroke. In addition, chalk pastel colors are more easily blended on the drawing substrate. The wax contained in oil pastels renders them more resistant to blending.
Oil pastels are also limited in the number of colors which can be blended together before the resulting tones appear muddy. No more than a few colors should be blended in order to avoid obscuring the color In this manner.
The present invention seeks to add certain advantages of chalk pastels to an oil pastel medium, while maintaining the benefits which oil pastels offer. Specifically, a medium is described which combines the ease of application and blending of soft pastels with the self-fixing durability and solvent dilution ability of oil pastels.